Hoping for reforms that work

Local advocates: Immigration laws need much fixing.

January 28, 2013|JOSEPH DITS | South Bend Tribune

It could be a good start — a long-awaited stab at solving the dysfunction of the United States’ immigration laws — but local advocates on either side of the debate are waiting to see the specifics of what a group of senators and President Obama are hatching.

Monday brought the news that the senators were heading toward a bipartisan fix, hoping it can be passed by summer. Obama plans to announce his plan today.

Immigration attorney Rudy Monterrosa of South Bend has seen the laws discourage illegal immigrants from going through the steps to become legal.

Consider this scenario: For many people who are here illegally, they have to return to their home country to apply for a visa through the U.S. consulate there.

The person has to have a family member who’s a citizen. But unless that person is the child or spouse of a citizen, the person sometimes has to wait 10 to 15 years depending on the country, Monterrosa said.

He points out a new waiver, which goes into effect in March, that would reduce the waiting time. But not everyone would qualify because they’d have to show they’re facing an extreme hardship, he said.

Bob Schrameyer feels the senators are just “pandering” to get the Hispanic vote. He’s head of the group Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement based in Elkhart County that, in his words, “wants the law enforced.”

“There are good laws on the books, but we don’t enforce them,” he said.

That said, he agrees with a couple of the senators’ four key goals and acknowledges the need for a good plan.

“I know something has to be done,” he said of the 11 million illegal immigrants who are said to be in the country. “You can’t deport all these people.”

At the top of his list, he feels the border must be secured. He feels officials also need to address the issues by growing job opportunities for citizens, whether it’s access to low-skilled work or opportunities for students to learn skilled work.

“The only reason immigration has slowed down is that there are not that many jobs,” he said.

One of the senators’ four goals calls for an employment verification system to ensure that employers don’t hire illegal immigrants.

Mike Durham, an immigration attorney in South Bend who counsels employers on immigration laws, said he’s already taken calls from companies wondering what extra steps and expenses they’d have to go through to verify their workers’ legal status if new reforms are passed.

Schrameyer questions the government’s current E-Verify system: “They (employers) can sign up for it, but do they use it?”

Durham points out another law that is splitting up many families: When people cross the border illegally more than once, they can end up barred from ever being allowed to rectify their legal status.

In some cases, those border crossings came as people went home for family emergencies. But they usually don’t realize they’d eventually be barred from a legal status fix, Durham said.

The law has been on the books since 1997 but was reinterpreted a few years ago, he said.

Local attorney Felipe Merino said he’s run into trouble in a neighboring county where authorities won’t certify victims of violent crimes so they can gain visas. Congress created a provision, he said, that allows victims to gain a visa if they cooperate with law enforcement.

The attorneys do credit a new law last year for helping local immigrants whose parents brought them to the U.S. before they turned 16.

The new law doesn’t give them legal status, but it defers action against them for two years — allowing them to work — as long as they’ve lived in the U.S. since 2007, were younger than 31 on June 15, 2012, haven’t committed a crime and met other requirements.